Top 10 Gazette stories of the year: #7 Iowa Republicans take over statehouse

Counting down the top Gazette stories of the years as voted by our readers

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Shell Rock Republican Bill Dix emerged from a closed-door caucus Friday of 29 GOP senators who elected him to serve as Senate majority leader during the 85th Iowa General Assembly when lawmakers convene their 2017 session on Jan. 9. (Rod Boshart, The Gazette)

The Gazette

Dec 27, 2016 at 5:37 pm | Print View

Probably by this point in the list some people are wondering: Where’s Trump?

Don’t worry, he’s coming later. But he’s not the only Republican who won big in 2016.

Already with GOP control of the Iowa governor’s mansion, Iowa House, three of four U.S. Representatives, and two U.S. Senators, Republicans in Iowa rode the good national GOP vibrations all the way to the one thing that had been eluding them: control of the Iowa Senate.

What can Iowans expect out of this GOP dominated statehouse? Likely many of the things Republicans have wanted to do for years but would end up blocked by the narrow Democratic majority in the Iowa senate: tax cuts and reform, changes to school funding, possible banning of traffic cameras, legalization of fireworks and perhaps even some of those thorny social issues such as voter ID laws, abortion, union bargaining rights, and gun control.

In any case, 2017 should be an interesting year in Des Moines. Stay tuned.